Actress Bears Witness to Hollywood Stardom

Over the past two years, actress Kelly McGillis has been receiving rave reviews--from her starring role in last year's hit thriller Witness to her recent portrayal of Nina in the National Repertory Theater's production of Anton Chekov's The Seagull. Yesterday in the Quincy House Junior Common Room, McGillis tried her hand at some critique, herself.

As part of the Learning From Performers series, McGillis came to Harvard to give a series of acting workshops. Friday afternoon McGillis attentively watched as three sets of thespians filmed their versions of a scene from The Seagull. "Simplicity is everything in movies," she advised. "Being simple on camera is much easier than moving around a lot."

Garbed in a black skirt, leather cowboy boots and pearls--quite a contrast from the Amish habit she donned for Witness--the svelte blond-haired actress leaned forward in her chair, taking a long drag on her cigarette. "This is only what I believe, you know. There are no rules in acting. Everyone is an individual who has to make his own choices."

McGillis spent three days at Harvard during which she led two Quincy House workshops and hosted a public screening of her 1984 film release Witness, followed by a question-answer series. Saying that this was her first visit to Harvard, McGillis joked, "I have never before been on the soil of 'higher education' in my life."

So, she sampled it, even carving time out of her hectic schedule to visit Professor Jennifer Whiting's Philosophy 105 class on Aristotelian thought. She says she had always been interested in philosophy, but never had a chance to take any such classes at the Juilliard School.

At yesterday's workshop, McGillis conducted her own Socratic dialogue with students, discoursing on what compels one to become a professional actor. Recalling the Checkovian charcter of Nina--a young actress who aspires to fame and fortune but does not foresee the consequences of losing touch with humanity--McGillis emphasized that one needs the ability to endure and to know oneself in order to become a successful actress.

"There are no guarantees in acting," she said. "Much of acting is luck. Actors have to go by the whims of the public. Take those `Rambo-Commando' type movies for example. You often hear of those `hot' actors who are here today, and gone tomorrow."

"I just hope to keep on working and challenging myself," she added with a smile.

Wooed by Sellars

McGillis just finished a three-month run as `Nina' in the Kennedy Center's National Repertory Theater's production of The Seagull with Peter Sellars '80 as director. While at Harvard, Sellars made a name for himself with his avant-garde productions at the Loeb Mainstage Theater.

"Peter is such a genius," McGillis said, "He influenced me in a truly positive way. I was getting wooed by the 'Hollywood Syndrome,' whatever that is, and he made me reanalyze why I was in this business. It's not to make money, or fame, but to create."

While McGillis' workshop was originally planned mainly to help the actors improve their techniques, the students in yesterday's class seemed as fascinated with the actress herself as they were with her advice. Katherine Robin '87, a participant in the workshop, said, "I really liked her. I was impressed with how normal and casual she was. She sure wasn't very `Amish.''' Robin added that it was "neat to see other interpretations [of the scene] ahead of me. The role of Nina is a very `choicy' part, and this was a good way to review the number of choices I had to make."

Noama S. Potok '87 agreed, "I found it very helpful to hear conversation from Kelly McGillis and the other actors participating." However, the Quincy House resident added that she would have liked to have a chance to rework scenes.

The workshop ended with a fizzle, however, as the videotape when finally replayed, came up only static. McGillis took this in stride, asking facetiously whether the participants would like to sing songs.

From Farm to Film

In front of a Carpenter Center audience of 200 Thursday night, McGillis discussed the measures she took to prepare to play the role "Rachel" in Witness, the highly acclaimed film of Amish people caught up in a modern-day murder scam. She chose to live away from the film production company and stay with an Amish widow on a Pennsylvania farm.

"I had never seen a a cow," said the California native. "I had never even been on a farm...I grew up very middle class and surfed a lot, so it was very different and enjoyable for me."